The Picture Gallery Composer-in-Residence Scheme is a ground-breaking residency in which successful student composers from the Department of Music will have their musical responses to the Picture Gallery and some of its wonderful paintings performed by an invited ensemble each year.
This residency is a professional development programme for music creators of the Department of Music to receive specialist, industry-standard workshop sessions and tutorials, working collaboratively with invited artists, ensembles and tutors to create new works that are premiered as part of the International Concert Series.
These new compositions are the result of a special collaboration between the College’s Art Curator Dr Laura MacCulloch and Nathan James Dearden, a College Composer, Conductor of the New Music Collective and Performance Manager at the Department of Music.
Project overview for 2019
For its fourth cohort, six successful applicants received the opportunity to work with the world-famous Choir of Royal Holloway and their conductor Rupert Gough through a collaborative and immersive rehearsal process exploring new music for voice.
For 2019-20, the composers were tasked to compose a part-song incorporating commissioned poetry by Prof. Robert Fraser, prose specifically written for individual paintings in our gallery. Successful applicants were assigned a poem (and corresponding painting from the Picture Gallery's collection) to write a new work for 3 to 5 voices.
